Bream
Good
Prime bream weather. Cast small vibes, crankbaits and 2 to 3 inch plastics at every piece of structure on the rising tide.
Shoalhaven River Fishing Report
Updated Mon, 9 Nov 2026 from live weather and tide data
From the gorge to the sea: the Shoalhaven through Nowra to its two entrances at Shoalhaven Heads and Crookhaven Heads, a river of bream, flathead, jew and bass.
2/5
Slow. Work for them.Conditions favor short windows and patient fishing.
Water temp
~22 °C est.
Air / High
13 °C / 18 °C
Wind
W 7 km/h
Sources: Open-Meteo, solunar calculated for these coordinates.
Today's Fishing Report
Shoalhaven River is fishing in its best temperature window, with the bite spread across the day. Today brings clear skies, wind W around 6 km/h, rising pressure near 1020 hPa and a high of 18 °C. Water sits around 22 °C for the season (estimated). With the new moon, the solunar majors run 11:55 PM-1:55 AM and 11:31 AM-1:31 PM: the windows to build the day around.
Flathead
Good
The best of it. Drift the sand and weed edges, bounce plastics or a strip of bait along the bottom, and cover ground until you find the school.
Mulloway
Fair
Fish the deep holes and the rock walls through a tide change after dark; live mullet, yellowtail or a large soft plastic worked slowly.
Tailor
Fair
Rock ledges and beach gutters on the rising tide; metals cast and retrieved fast, or a whole pilchard drifted through the wash.
Tie on: Soft plastic on a 1/4 oz jighead · Small hardbody, shallow diver · Squid jig, size 3.0 · Fresh pipi or worm on a small hook. Prime windows: 11:55 PM-1:55 AM, 11:31 AM-1:31 PM, 4:49 AM-5:49 AM. Warmer at 21 °C. The solunar majors shift about 50 minutes later.
Before you go
New South Wales requires a fishing licence for most fishing, from A$7.00. New South Wales fishing licence: cost, rules and where to buy →
Chasing bream here? Check the size and bag limits with DPIRD NSW before you keep anything; the Bream page has the seasons and the tactics.
Fishing times for Shoalhaven River today
Hour-by-hour bite forecast for today from sunrise (05:48), sunset (19:34), the moon and today's score. Tap a bar to see why.
Bite planner
Solunar majors 11:55 PM-1:55 AM and 11:31 AM-1:31 PM; minor 4:49 AM-5:49 AM. New Moon, 0% lit.
Water and weather
Conditions here are modelled from weather, season and the nearest stations.
No live gauge on this water
Water readings appear when a Bureau of Meteorology station covers it. Until then the seasonal curve below is the estimate.
Right now
Latest readings
Air temp13 °C
High / Low18 °C / 10 °C
WindW 7 km/h, gusts 15 km/h
Pressure1019.8 hPa, rising
Sky / Rain10% cloud, 94%
Sunrise / Sunset05:48 / 19:34
MoonNew Moon, 0%
Water temp (seasonal)~22 °C est.
7-day fishing forecast: which day to fish Shoalhaven River
The best day on Shoalhaven River this week looks like Friday 13 Nov, at 5 out of 5, against 2 today.
Best day this week: Friday, 13 Nov — excellent at 5/5, falling pressure, usually the best window of a week.
Today, 9 Nov — Tough
Conditions favor short windows and patient fishing.
- Solunar majors
- 11:55 PM-1:55 AM and 11:31 AM-1:31 PM
- Minor period
- 4:49 AM-5:49 AM
- Sun
- 05:48 to 19:34
- Moon
- New Moon, 0% lit
- Sky and wind
- Showers, 21 km/h
- Rain chance
- 94%
Forecast-based scores, less reliable further out.
Species guide
The species that matter on Shoalhaven River: seasons written for the southern year, and how to fish each one. Today's ratings live in the report above.
Bream
Year-round; summer and autumn in the estuaries, winter at the mouths
Yellowfin bream on the east coast, black bream in the southern estuaries. Structure fish: rock walls, jetty piles, oyster racks, snags and pontoons. Prime bream weather. Cast small vibes, crankbaits and 2 to 3 inch plastics at every piece of structure on the rising tide.
Flathead
Best: November to April
Dusky flathead in the eastern estuaries, sand flathead in the southern bays. An ambush predator lying on sand and mud edges waiting for whatever the tide brings. The best of it. Drift the sand and weed edges, bounce plastics or a strip of bait along the bottom, and cover ground until you find the school.
Mulloway
Best: summer and autumn, especially after rain
Jewfish. The big silver prize of the estuaries, breakwalls and surf beaches: nocturnal, tide-driven and unforgiving of noise. Fish the deep holes and the rock walls through a tide change after dark; live mullet, yellowtail or a large soft plastic worked slowly.
Tailor
Autumn and winter on the east coast; the run reaches K'gari (Fraser Island) in late winter, where the east beach from Waddy Point to Indian Head is closed to all fin fish from 1 August to 29 September
The surf and rock fish of the east coast, running north in autumn and winter. Fast, toothy and best at dawn, dusk and into the dark. Rock ledges and beach gutters on the rising tide; metals cast and retrieved fast, or a whole pilchard drifted through the wash.
When to come: the Shoalhaven River calendar
Activity by species and month for the southern year, and how the water warms and cools. Tap any cell.
Species activity by month
1 = slow, 5 = peak. Current month highlighted. January is midsummer here.
J
F
M
A
M
J
J
A
S
O
N
D
Bream
Flathead
Mulloway
Tailor
SlowPeak
Water temperature through the year
Typical surface temperature for this water type in degrees Celsius; today is around 22 °C (estimated, not a reading).
Angler reports
Real reports from real anglers, reviewed before publishing. Nothing here is copied from a shop or a charter. The water log below tracks each day automatically.
No angler reports yetBe the first: your report helps every angler who checks Shoalhaven River today.
Water log, last days
Auto-logged from live dataSun, Nov 8
3/5 Fair. Fish the windows. A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day. Bream led the card at good. High of 17 °C, wind to 31 km/h.
Sat, Nov 7
3/5 Fair. Fish the windows. A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day. Bream led the card at good. High of 27 °C, wind to 27 km/h.
Fri, Nov 6
5/5 Excellent. Go now. Everything lines up: pressure, wind and light are in your favor. Bream led the card at excellent. High of 21 °C, wind to 23 km/h.
Before you go
Licence
NSW Recreational Fishing Fee, from A$7.00, the same for residents and visitors. Details and where to buy →
Regulations
Size and bag limits, closed seasons and marine park zones are set by DPIRD NSW and change: confirm the current rules on the agency page linked from the New South Wales licence page before you keep anything.
Access
The NSW Recreational Fishing Fee applies on the whole river, from A$7 for three days; our New South Wales licence page has the fees.
About this water
Shoalhaven River is a river in New South Wales, Australia, covered from the New South Wales reports and listed in all Australia waters.
Fishing Shoalhaven River: the full guide
The river
The Shoalhaven River rises on the Southern Tablelands and cuts through a long gorge before reaching the coastal plain near Nowra, from where it runs tidal past Nowra’s bridges and rock walls, through the farmland and the islands of the lower river, to the sea. It reaches the sea by two entrances, Shoalhaven Heads and Crookhaven Heads, joined by the Crookhaven arm, with Greenwell Point on the Crookhaven behind them. It is a big river with something for every angler: bass in the fresh water, bream and flathead in the tidal reaches, mulloway in the deep bends and the Crookhaven, and oyster leases in the lower river. Nowra has its own page for the town reaches.
Species by season
Bream are the river’s year-round fish along the walls, the leases and the snags, with the winter run to the mouths; flathead lie on the sand of the lower river and the flats from spring to autumn; mulloway are the night fish of the deep bends, the bridges and the Crookhaven; and whiting fish the flats and the sand near the heads in summer. Australian bass hold in the fresh reaches and the gorge; DPIRD closes bass and estuary perch in rivers from 1 May to 31 August, except in rivers above impoundments, so the rule differs above and below Tallowa Dam. Luderick fish the walls in winter, tailor and salmon run the mouths in the cooler months, and prawns run on the dark nights of summer.
Reading this report for the Shoalhaven
The page is scored for a point on the lower river at Shoalhaven Heads, so its weather and its modelled tide read for the entrances rather than for the gorge; in the tidal reaches the bream feed on the run and the mulloway on the change, so take the times from the Bureau of Meteorology’s predictions for the coast and allow for the delay up the river. Rain matters most, because a fresh from the gorge colours the river for days and pushes the fish downstream. Pressure and cloud make up the rest of the score, and the planner shows which night to fish.
Licence, access and rules
The NSW Recreational Fishing Fee applies on the whole river, from A$7 for three days; our New South Wales licence page has the fees. The river parks at Nowra, the Crookhaven foreshore and the Shoalhaven Heads foreshore give public access; the DPIRD limits and the bass and estuary perch closure are on the pages in the sources.
Common questions
What can I catch in the Shoalhaven River?
Bream and flathead in the tidal reaches, mulloway at night, whiting in summer, luderick on the walls in winter, prawns on the dark summer nights and bass in the fresh reaches.
Do I need a fishing licence on the Shoalhaven?
Yes. From the gorge to the heads the Shoalhaven is New South Wales water, and a three-day Recreational Fishing Fee costs A$7.
Is fishing good at Shoalhaven River right now?
Check the daily report at the top of this page: it is regenerated every morning from live data. Today's read: Slow. Work for them. Conditions favor short windows and patient fishing.
Nearby waters
Where this page's numbers come from
- Open-Meteo forecast model
- https://open-meteo.com/
- Moon and solunar windows
- Calculated on this site
- Pages checked
- The written guide on this page
Pablo Ruiz Quintero
Readings refresh on a 30-minute window. The full method, with every figure and its source, is on How our reports are made. Something wrong here? Tell us and it goes in the log with the date.